Tuesday, February 28, 2012

The Heiltsuk people are the rightful owners, and therefore the caretakers, of our territorial lands & waters, in the Great Bear Rain-forest on BC’s Central Coast, so we must speak up for all the creatures, as they have no idea what’s happening, nor can they speak for themselves. We believe and have faith that native people and all others, who care deeply for the land, waters, and all that inhabit them, will rise above any struggles we are faced with!

We are very prideful of who we are regardless of the boundaries that have been placed on us by the non-Heiltsuk governments. We will not permit Enbridge to take away what is vital to our way of living! The Heiltsuk strive to survive on what mother earth has been providing us for over 11,000 years, wild salmon, clams, halibut, snappers, ling cod, ooligans, seaweed, herring, herring eggs, deer, elk, crabs, cockles, mussels, sea urchins & prawns etc.

We’re sharing this because we wish to inform you that the Heiltsuks are in the process of planning a Peaceful ‘Save Our Shores’ Rally/Protest in Vancouver in opposition to Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline. We had officially announced during the West Coast Night that the Rally will be on March 26, 2012, the 23rd Anniversary of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Catastrophe in Prince William Sound Alaska. The proposed route will start from the Great Bear Initiative Office on Granville and Hasting, to the Vancouver Art Gallery and then to Enbridge's BC Regioal Office on Burrard Street.

We respectfully request the support of the Coast Salish communities, whose land we will be rallying on, all Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people residing in Vancouver lower mainland, the Power to Women and other Aboriginal groups, and our other allies such as Sierra Club, Dogwood Initiative, and Pacific Wild.
Please rally with us as we peacefully voice our concerns in regards to the proposed pipeline and the subsequent Super Tanker traffic within our traditional territory! We also asked that you share and forward to as many others, as we want to reach as many people as we can.

Walas Giaxsixa (Many Thanks) for taking the time to read and for coming out in support of our opposition to Enbridge's proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline!

University of Calgary aboriginal law expert Ni-gel Bankes, who is also the university's chair of Natural Resources Law, has said the government's policy of simply posting lease sales online and not going to First Nations directly doesn't stand up to scrutiny.

"I'd say the province isn't doing a good job," Bankes said when an Alberta court quashed the First Nation's initial appeal last year.

"The decision at trial was essentially that the First Nation missed the deadline for commencing its judicial re-view," Bankes said. "I am suggesting that that's incorrect, and that time should start to run . . . when the First Nation gets actual notice from the Crown."

(Vancouver, Feb. 23, 2012) - Transport Canada's decision to allow Enbridge to use supertankers carrying oil to navigate the waters within the Traditional Territories of the Coastal First Nations is unfathomable, says Art Sterritt.

Sterritt, the executive director of the Coastal First Nations, says numerous safety issues, including treacherous passage ways, poor weather conditions and human error, were ignored or minimized by Transport Canada. “It is nonsensical to say there will always be residual risk in any project. This shocking decision means a disproportionate share of risk clearly falls on the people who live within the Great Bear Rainforest.”

The decision is yet another way in which the federal government is unduly influencing the very flawed Joint Review Process on the Enbridge Project, he said. “It’s abundantly clear the government isn’t interested in what the public hearing process determines.”

The Coastal First Nations has been studying the potential impacts of tanker oil spills in the Great Bear Sea for the past eight years, Sterritt said. “We recently completed report “A Review of Potential Impacts to Coastal First Nations from an Oil Tanker Spill Associated with the Northern Gateway Project” that confirms a tanker spill would cause catastrophic economic, environmental and cultural damage.”

He said the report found that many of the response techniques identified by Enbridge, including booming around tankers to contain spilled oil, skimmers and booms used to remove oil, and re-direction to sensitive areas are similar to methods used during the Exxon Valdez cleanup. “The Exxon Valdez experience shows these response techniques were largely ineffective in containing and collecting spilled oil. These techniques resulted in the recovery of only 14% of the original amount of oil released from the grounding event.”

Costs related to damage caused by a major oil spill in the Great Bear Sea could reach as high as $23 billion, Sterrit said. “Oil tankers in the Great Bear Sea are a threat to our culture and a steadily improving coastal economy. The Coastal First Nations, along with our allies, will continue to take any actions that are necessary to stop oil tankers from traversing the Great Bear Sea.”

The Coastal First Nations are an alliance of First Nations that includes the Wuikinuxv Nation, Heiltsuk, Kitasoo/Xaixais, Nuxalk, Gitga’at, Haisla, Metlakatla, Old Massett, Skidegate, and Council of the Haida Nation working together to create a sustainable economy on British Columbia’s North and Central Coast and Haida Gwaii.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Through all the concern and hoopla regarding Enbridge's proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline project, and the subsequent Tanker Traffic that would riddle the Northwest Coast, there is one Federal Department that has not raised any concerns about the threats that these developments will have on the primary area of their concern, The Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO). Considering DFO's mandate is to ensure healthy and abundant fish stocks, protecting the species that are outlined in the Species at Risk Act, and ensure the overall health of the marine environment and their ecosystems are cared for, they have been silent on an issue that will have significant impact on the marine environment whether there is a spill or not.

Consider the magnitude of the ships let alone the significant traffic from China that will result from development of the pipeline in Kitamaat, BC! In addition to the myriad of other marine traffic from carrier ships, cruise ships, tugs and barges, fishing vessels, and recreational vessels, this pipeline is expected to attract 225 or more tankers, and many of them Ultra or Very Large Crude Carriers (Super Tankers), navigating to and from our coastal waters through to Kitamaat by way of Douglas Channel.

Many highly experienced and educated individuals have said, it is not a matter of if, but when one of these Super Tanker has an accident as a result of mechanical, human error, and or environmental cause. Whether it collides with another vessel, a submerged rock, or our coastal shores, a BITUMEN oil spill from one of these Ultra Large Crude Carriers will cause a cataclysmic marine disaster that will destroy the resources we as First Nation relied on for thousands of years, not to mention those industry stakeholders who gain economic benefit from as well, such as Commercial Fishermen of all kinds, Eco-Tourism operators or Sports Fishing Lodges. Aside from the unthinkable risks of a major oil spill, which would devastate our marine ecosystem, these Super Tankers give noise equivalent to that of a airline jet, disrupting and changing the patterns of the marine species that inhabit the Northwest Coast. This can be very detrimental, especially to the Species at Risk such as the Orca Whale!

A recent Supreme Court decision ruled that the Federal Minister of Fisheries has a legal obligation to protect the Orca! The court said all elements of the plan must be enshrined in law. That would mean protecting the chinook salmon, that whales' main food source, reducing underwater noise from boat, industrial, and military activity and cleaning up toxic contamination in the whale's home ecosystem. The following CBC link provides further detail in this regard .http://www.cbc.ca/m/touch/technology/story/2012/02/10/pol-endangered-killer-whales-court.html. Given this recent landmark decision and the ministries overall mandate, DFO has a moral, legal and fiduciary responsibility to do what it takes to protect all marine species from the significant risk that Super Tankers pose, especially those protected under the Species at Risk Act.

Herein lies the question, considering the risks inherent with the Enbridge proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline Project and the subsequent need for Super Tankers to transport the Bitumen Tar Sand to China and the roles and responsibilities of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), Why hasn't DFO intervened on behalf of the very marine species they are mandated to protect and the fishing community that relies on them to ensure there is access to an economically viable fishery?

If one breaks down their responsibility to those two basic, yet vital reasons for DFO's being, it is apparent that this Ministry/Department is negligent in its duties!

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

The following is a reposting of a CBC news article. The original article can be accessed here.

An expert panel investigating the state of Canadian marine
biodiversity has accused the government of failing to protect the
country's oceans, leaving marine life threatened and the nation's ocean
species at risk.

An expert panel has accused Canada's government of failing to protect ocean biodiversity. (Associated Press)

(Note:CBC does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external links.)

The panel was commissioned by the Royal Society of Canada in 2009 to
review the effects of climate change, fishing and aquaculture on the
ability of Canada's oceans to sustain and restore marine populations.

Announcing the panel's findings in Vancouver on Thursday, Prof.
Jeffrey Hutchings said the government had failed to meet national and
international commitments to sustain marine biodiversity over many
years.

"Twenty years after the collapse of the northern cod fishery, we
don't have a target for a recovery. How is that possibly consistent with
responsible management of our oceans?

"It doesn't stand up nationally, it doesn't stand up internationally — but that is where we are, 20 years later," he said.

Risk to Chinook salmon

The
panel found the foundation of Canada's ocean legislation, the 1868
Fisheries Act, outdated and discovered the 1996 Oceans Act, designed to
help Canada move towards sustainable ocean management, has not been
implemented.

"It leaves huge discretionary powers to the minister of Fisheries and
Oceans, who is given no science-based guidelines, targets or
principles, " the report said.

"The panel found not lack of knowledge or lack of sound policy, but a
consistent, disheartening lack of action on well-established knowledge
and best-practice and policies, some of which have been around for
years."

Among the species the panel lists at risk of extinction is the
Chinook salmon, which it claims is threatened by the effect of climate
change on mountain streams, no longer a habitable environment for the
juvenile fish.

The report also highlights the potential of fish farming to
accelerate the spread of parasites and diseases and undermine wild
species by interbreeding.